Maze
Maze is an alternate dimension in conflict with the one we know, and the origin of all World and Cheshire Devils. It is eventually destroyed by Shinonome Azuma at the end of the manga. There are approximately 100 million inhabitants, all trapped within a large tower due to an unstable atmosphere that makes living outside of the tower impossible. The group of Anomalies that invade Maze remark that the people within Maze are all completely human, with absolutely no detectable differences between those of Zera. Within the tower, there are many levels that appear to be completely separate from one another, but the overall happiness of the population of one level appears to have a direct inverse correlation with the happiness of other levels. The King keeps the happiness levels evened out through sometimes drastic measures, including impromptu mass murders of his own citizens. According to Seki Hijiri, the height of the tower reaches the stratosphere, and the total area is 30 square km (approximately 18.6 square miles). There are over 2222 floors, each with geographical differences that help or hinder the growth of their respective populations, and Seshio Gwendolin specifies that there are 2 million emergency exits within the tower. Navigation within the tower seems to be accomplished mainly via elevator, but there are spiral staircases shown leading to the floor where Lukyon's mother is kept, showing that, in at least some places, stairs are still in use. Seki states that the inhabitants of Maze have deserted the ground for this gigantic tower, and the population of the tower is approximately 90 million. This claim directly contrasts that of The King by about 10 million. It is unclear whether one of them is simply giving an incorrect amount or there are an extra 10 million people within Maze that do not live within the tower. World devils are artificially created within the tower, and serve as a defense mechanism to combat the invasion. They are apparently the only halfway decent defense system within the tower, according to Seki. The actual world devils sent to Zera in order to destroy it are also trained within the tower, including notable members such as Sallo and Giger. The population of Maze in its entirety serves as The King's reserve tanks, as he does not have a physical body and exists solely as a World Devil manifestation in all realms. Due to this, hitting him does not kill him, but rather a varying number of people living within Maze. Since he appears to hold no love for his people beyond what they can do for him, this enables him to fight recklessly while laughing at the amount of people dying every time he is attacked. Locations within Maze There are seven levels within maze that are mentioned or explored, and only four are named. * Aroba District, where the anomalies first arrive, and with an unusually high happiness level, helped by geographical differences serving to its advantage. The King slaughters a group of innocents in order to compensate for this. * Kryn District, a neighboring district to Aroba. It is only mentioned by name, and reportedly has a lower happiness level than Aroba. * Brow District, a neighboring district to Aroba. It is only mentioned by name, and reportedly has a lower happiness level than Aroba. * The floor where Seki encounters The King and Azuma first fights him. It is left unclear whether this floor is where Giger lived. * The floor where the captured Cheshire devils are held captive and later slaughtered. It is never referred to by any name, but appears to be a standard - if exceptionally large - prison cell for Maze. * The floor where the nervous system of Lukyon's mother is kept. It appears to be a laboratory where The King performed experiments on ways to keep humans alive without their bodies remaining intact. * The Control Room, where the artificial "brain" of Maze is kept. This supercomputer controls all the exits and is the entity that sends World devils to Zera. It appears to be totally sentient, and speaks to the anomalies through the body of Sophie Krismann. Its sole motivation is ensuring the survival of Maze over that of Zera. Timeline of Maze An extra page within the manga presented a timeline of key events within Maze leading up to the birth of Azuma in Zera. This is a word-for-word list of events and times copied from the translation, going from the beginning up to Azuma's birth. None of the people mentioned by name, minus The King, Seshio, and Azuma are ever mentioned beyond this page. * 2nd era, year 1302 - Gyuba, the great philosopher, has proposed the synchronization of natural science, astronomy, and life energy. * 2nd era, year 1310 - In search of eternal life, Doro the alchemist has discovered the secret of life energy. * 2nd era, year 1317 - Gyuba and Doro have formed a society, putting all differences aside. * 2nd era, year 1449 - A great catastrophe never seen before, the "Dawn of Manebu", caused calamities all over the world. * 3rd era - The Gyuba-Doro society has discovered another world, "Zera". * 3rd era, year 32 - The phenomenon of "fissures" has started happening, halving the world's population. * 3rd era, year 79 - The Gyuba-Doro society has discovered the way to interact with Zera from the mirror. The next 70 years were spent on researching "Observers". * 3rd era, year 155 - A way to artificially create observers has been discovered, and Zera has been studied thoroughly. * 3rd era, year 210 - The Mechanism of Orffyreus from Zera and its concept of perpetual motion has become the centerpiece of Maze's technology, rocketing the technology to a new level. In the same year, the prototype pf Orffyreus has become the symbol of Gyuba-Doro and named "Cheshire", which means "smile". * 3rd era, year 262 - Foundation of the world government with Cheshire Cadres at the top, there was not a single opposition. * 3rd era, year 350 - The second Dawn of Manebu took the life of 100 million citizens. * 4th era, year 13 - Maze proposed the plan to escape into space, however, observations have shown that the fissures stretch across the universe. * 4th era, year 15 - The Cheshire have discovered that Zera and Maze face mutual destruction, and published their findings to the world. * 4th era, year 28 - The Cheshire have successfully sent the first Observer to Zera, the girl's name was "Olouki". She never returned. In the same year, a pathway between both worlds has been discovered and named "Wonderland". * 4th era, year 46 - The government made the proposal to use "World Devils" to destroyZera in order to save Maze. The debate continued for 100 years. * 4th era, year 100 - Under the supervision of Cheshire, the gigantic arcology was contructed, so was the "Heart". The King is born. The population has been reduced to 3 billion. * 4th era, year 159 - Birth of Seshio Gwendolin, and the swap of the world government. * 1 year later, the year 1998 in Zera...Birth of Shinonome Azuma.